96% of US hospital websites share visitor info with Meta, Google, data brokers

A new study finds that 96% of U.S. non-federal acute care hospital websites transmit visitor data to third parties (notably Google and Meta), often without comprehensive privacy policies or clear disclosure of recipients, exposing both patients and institutions to privacy and regulatory risks. The research also notes widespread use of trackers from firms like Adobe, The Trade Desk, Verizon, Oracle, Microsoft, and Amazon, and that two-thirds of sites sent data to unidentified domains; legal exposure is underscored by cases like the $18.4M Mass General Brigham settlement. In the absence of federal privacy law, the authors recommend browser tools such as Ghostery and Privacy Badger to block third-party tracking.